Gavin Dillon Lawrence's new play premieres at American Players Theatre

Lauren Hafeman, Isthmus

In 2012, a single photograph, the gentrification of Washington, D.C., and the passing of a Black cultural icon worked together to inspire actor, director and playwright Gavin Dillon Lawrence to begin writing a new play. After a decade of careful writing and revision, that play, The Death of Chuck Brown, premiered at American Players Theatre on June 24.

The Death of Chuck Brown, also directed by Lawrence, explores themes of family relationships, community safe spaces, Black history and gentrification’s impacts on historically Black neighborhoods. The play centers around the relationship between a father, Kofi, and his son, Prince, as Kofi contemplates selling his barbershop in a rapidly changing neighborhood in the nation’s capital city. Kofi and Prince’s story unfolds against the backdrop of the passing of Chuck Brown, a real-life, beloved Washington, D.C., musical and cultural figure.

For Lawrence, the journey to creating The Death of Chuck Brown began with an image of his son sitting in a barber’s chair. Intrigued by the startled look on his son’s face, Lawrence says he asked himself, “If I were to write a story about this, just based on this picture, and I didn’t know the person, what would it be?”

That question led Lawrence to explore a narrative rooted in African American father-son relationships — a subject he feels is often misunderstood and misrepresented.

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